In the prior art it is common to bring the circuits on a circuit board to a number of contact terminals positioned along one edge so that the card can be physically inserted into an edge connector to establish a plurality of separate circuits. In some arts, such as those related to telephone equipment, it is desirable that a through circuit be maintained in the edge connector when the card is not inserted. This is achieved by the use of separate normal through contacts in the connector. Some prior art devices use a spring loaded shorting bar which is pushed out of the way by the insertion of the printed circuit card. Other more elaborate mechanical devices are also employed by the prior art. However, they all suffer from the disadvantage that they do not reliably make the connection with the inserted printed circuit card before the normal connection is broken. This is particularly objectionable to the telephone industry where it is necessary to always maintain a continuous circuit to avoid the possible interruption of a circuit carrying voice or data signals. It would therefore be a significant improvement if one could have a reliable make-before-break edge connector for a printed circuit card. The present invention accomplishes this end.